The present invention relates to bearing seals which seal the respective open end portions of the bearing space defined between the opposed portions of an outer race and an inner race, and to a rolling bearing with the bearing seals.
Since rolling bearings are extremely large-sized which are used in CT scanner devices (medical devices) or wind power generating devices, it is necessary to seal the respective end portions of a bearing space by use of bearing seals each having a large diameter so as to prevent foreign objects from going into the bearing space. In order to reinforce such a bearing seal having a large diameter with a metal core, it is necessary to prepare a very large-sized mold for vulcanizing rubber or for forming a metal core, thus leading to high manufacturing costs and making this method unrealistic.
Therefore, as for such large-sized bearing seals as described above, as described in Japanese Unexamined Patent Application Publication No. 2011-202774, the respective open end portions of a bearing space are sealed by only bearing seals made of rubber.
Each bearing seal described in Japanese Unexamined Patent Application Publication No. 2011-202774 has a rectangular section and the shape of a strip. One side of each bearing seal having the shape of a strip is fitted into a seal groove formed in the inner diameter surface of an outer race so that the bearing seal is made annular-shaped along the seal groove, thereby sealing the respective open end portions of the bearing space defined between the opposed portions of the outer race and an inner race.
For each bearing seal described in Japanese Unexamined Patent Application Publication No. 2011-202774, if one side of the bearing seal is simply fitted into the corresponding seal groove formed in the outer race, since the support of the bearing seal is made unstable and thus the bearing seal might be pulled out of the seal groove, the seal bearing is bonded with an adhesive to the seal groove.
In this case, since it is necessary to uniformly apply an adhesive to one side of each bearing seal over its entire length, and also to remove oil from the surface of the bearing seal to which an adhesive is applied, the mounting of the bearing seal is extremely time-consuming. In order to easily mount each bearing seal, some points need to be improved.